Monday, October 24, 2011

Ichobar vs Ichobar

The Ichobar Crane from the book differs greatly from the Ichobar depicted in the movie adaptation. For one, the book version is much friendlier, and his appearance is described as tall, small headed with huge ears and eyes. However, Johnny Depp gives Ichobar a sort of Deppification, changing his personality from a dreamy scholar into a whacky detective with a sort of wild yet contained insanity present in almost every Johnny Depp character.
While these changes are the most apparent, there is one change to Ichobar that, while subtle, is much more significant than any aesthetic changes to the character: his religious views. The Ichobar Crane in the original Sleepy Hollow is an avid Christian, which drastically changes how he approaches the idea of an apparition murdering the townspeople in comparison to the Ichobar in the movie. The atheist, science embracing Ichobar of the movie has an almost catatonic reaction to seeing an actual headless horseman commit the murders.